Will there ever be justice for Tony Jones, last seen hitchhiking in North Queensland in 1982?

HIS bizarre vanishing spawned national missing persons week. But the search for Tony Jones, aka the Two of Spades, involved one ‘monumental stuff up’.

TONY Jones was only 20 when he simply vanished off the face of the earth.

He was hitchhiking between Mt Isa and Townsville in November 1982 but never arrived.

His disappearance sparked national missing persons week, which every year tries to reunite people with their loved ones. Tony become the Two of Spades in a missing persons playing card pack designed to flush out information.

Thirty-three years on, his family insist that now-famous photo of the young West Australian was the beginning of a botched investigation that scuppered an early chance to find him.

Last year — in what homicide detectives said was a major breakthrough — police began searching through a slaughterhouse and a hotel in Hughenden, inland from Townsville. Police will only say these locations were “places of interest”.

At the time police said three people had come forward to say they saw Tony, who was also known as Anthony, at the Grand Hotel in Hughenden in November 1982.

The lead investigator, Townsville Detective Acting Superintendent Cheryl Scanlon, would not say why the slaughterhouse was a place of interest. But police have confirmed they believe Tony was killed in Hughenden.

His family hoped there had been a breakthrough but, so far at least, there’s nothing. It’s something they’re used to, and have accepted they may never know what happened to him.

“We realised a long time we might never know what happened. But it doesn’t stop you hoping that one day there will be something that comes up,” brother Mark Jones said.

Mr Jones has been critical of the police investigation into his brother’s disappearance and believes the statements they have focused on about a bearded man — at the hotel at Hughenden — are false.

The missing persons playing card pack featuring Tony Jones.

Tony Jones was last seen on November 3 1982.

“And if that turns out to be false then it’s a monumental stuff up.”

That’s because pictures of Tony were circulated after he went missing with a full beard, even though he’d shaved the beard off a few days before he vanished.

Mr Jones said: “We received numerous sightings from the Hughenden area of a man fitting Tony’s description and nominating dates of around November 12 or 13 — that’s 9 or 10 days after almost daily banking stopped and he made his last calls to family and girlfriend.

All of the witnesses expressed absolute confidence that the person they saw was identical to the photo in the paper with fully grown beard All were shown better photos of Tony and all conceded they were mistaken.”

He was frustrated at what he said was a lack of communication from investigators.

“They’re working on sightings but haven’t told us anything ... We were getting little bits and pieces hours before they went into the media.”

When the search warrants were executed last year they hoped they were a step closer to solving the mystery.

“We weren’t expecting that ... And when there was that breakthrough — it was incredible. We hadn’t even imagined it.”

Even the fact they were searching a slaughteryard was something they were prepared to deal with.

The Jones family have been waiting for decades hoping to find out what happened to Tony.

Witnesses have told police they saw missing hitchhiker Anthony "Tony" Jones at The Grand Hotel before he vanished in 1982.

Mark Jones: “We realised a long time we might never know what happened.”

“It’s not nice but however he was murdered was not nice. We’re prepared to go through whatever to get the truth.”

As time goes on however, their hope fades because witnesses and suspects get older and the chances of conviction grows less.

But, as this week’s arrest of a suspect for the 1982 murder of Elizabeth Dixon proves, cold cases can be cracked after decades.

“It’s just absolutely cruel we can’t move on with our lives. At some stage we’re going to have to drop everything and head to Brisbane [for the inquest] but we don’t know when.”

An earlier inquest in 2002 concluded that Mr Jones’ death was “at the hand of a person or persons unknown” and police investigations should continue.

Police have previously said there are “several persons of interest”.

Earlier this year, police announced they were looking for a distinctive firearm they believed Tony Jones had with him when he disappeared.

It’s thought the Voere .22 calibre bolt-action rifle could help identify the killer but so far the weapon hasn’t been found.

Despite the difficulty and the setbacks Mr Jones told news.com.au the family owed it to Tony to keep fighting for answers and justice.

They’ve done countless appeals over the years and had a lot of information from people that were in the area at the time. That made him think that everyone who had knowledge of what went on had already spoken up.

That is, except the killer or killers.

“It really needs to be a mate or someone who knows or is close to the culprits to deal with their conscience and do what they need to do.”

Originally published as Will there ever be justice for Tony Jones, last seen hitchhiking in North Queensland in 1982?